How Chefs Lose Weight

Mike Isabella

Original weight: 254 pounds

Final weight: 217.5 pounds

Total loss: 36.5 pounds, 14.4 percent body weight loss

Mike Isabella is the owner of Kapnos, Grab and Go, and Graffiato, an Italian restaurant with Mediterranean influences in the Chinatown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The restaurant offers dishes such as king crab legs with sea urchin and guanciale, roasted potato gnocchi, and chicken thighs in pepperoni sauce. Before opening Graffiato, Isabella was the Executive chef of Jose Andres’s Greek-Mediterranean restaurant, Zaytinya and appeared on season six of Bravo’s ‘Top Chef.’ So far’ Mike has lost a total of 36 pounds and 14.17 percent of his body fat, putting him in second place overall.

His strategy: Don’t deny foods, replace them.

“Some of the highest-quality foods are beautiful heirloom tomatoes and other seasonal produce with some nice spit-roasted chicken. So, for me, it’s not about saying no; it’s about choosing the right things to eat.”

His vice: Work hours.

“I just opened two new restaurants, so initially I couldn’t spend as much time at the gym as I would have liked, but now I’m working out more, maybe three or four days a week.”

His healthy food: Peanut butter and celery.

“Peanut butter and celery is something I could eat all day every day.”